I've been wanting to do a report on this one for awhile now, but am just getting around to it.

Recently I took Amtrak's Sunset Limited, train #1, from New Orleans to Los Angeles. I flew back to New Orleans on United...well, it was really Ted if you want to be picky.

All the pics except for one have to do with the rail portion of the trip since my flight back departed LAX at 6:30pm and well, it was night by then. Also, my apologies in advance, since some of them are kind of blurry due to the train window.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy this great American rail journey...and the flight back home.

Amtrak #1
Sunset Limited
NOL-LAX
Superliner Roomette

This train no longer operates to/from Orlando since Katrina, so New Orleans is once again the Eastern home for this train, which it had been for 100 years before Amtrak expanded service East of New Orleans in 1993. Indeed, the Sunset route is the oldest in the Amtrak system.

The Sunset Limited, historically, has been notorious for massive delays, thanks to its running on mostly Union Pacific track. Only a short portion, New Orleans to Lake Charles, is run on non-UP track (BNSF). This trip though, as many have been recently, was just about on-time...only twenty minutes behind schedule. In fact we would have been EARLY into LAX but we had to hold for a bit maybe 1/2 mile from the station waiting on a track assignment. Regardless, it was very admirable timekeeping this go around.

The service was very friendly, as is usually the case. Of course, with the new budget cuts imposed, the service in the Dining Car (which was usually full) takes longer since there is now only one waiter and one cook...as opposed to two of each not too long ago. Also, the food is now prepared OFF the train, and is simply reheated on the train in convection ovens. Amtrak calls this "Simplified Dining Service", and it is generally hit or miss in terms of quality. Everything was acceptable this go around...I had no real complaints.

I have to give Amtrak credit for the totally refurbished Sightseer Lounge car. It was beautiful...newer, more comfortable seats, new booth seating on the upper level, new tables upstairs, etc. The new lounges are, for now, only running on the Empire Builder and Sunset Limited. All Superliner-equipped trains will have them eventually.

The train itself was in good working order. Leaving NOL, the train was comprised of the following:

In San Antonio the train picked up one additional Coach and Sleeping Car from the Texas Eagle.

About 40 coach passengers got on in New Orleans, in addition to about 15 Sleeping Car passengers, a decent load for a midweek day in a slow travel period. The train slowly filled up more and more on the way and, by the time we arrived LAX, the Sleeping Cars were 90% full and i'd venture to say that they had about 120 passengers in Coach. Not a terrible load at all.

All in all, it was an excellent, relaxing trip. Long distance rail travel can be an endurance test for many, but it is always a great experience for me. I just hope congress continues to support Amtrak. I wish all the people who say that Amtrak long distance trains should be discontinued would hop on board trains like the Sunset Limited and see how many people board trains in towns like New Iberia, LA....Del Rio, TX...Alpine, TX...Deming, NM...etc. Small communities depend on Amtrak in many instances. Ok, enough ranting.

Now, a quick summary of the flight back home, before I present the pictures.

The flight back home was a typical domestic segment on United/Ted. 3h25 minute flying time, and the flight was 99% full...just a few middle seats open in Economy Plus. "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" was shown, which was pretty entertaining. Service was, well, minimal....one beverage service and one round of coffee, buy on board snack box offerings, and that's it. I was up in seat 3F so I had some good legroom at least. I commend UA for jumping right back into LAX-MSY, even though the seasonal introduction of Ted in the market is a definite service downgrade from UA-proper. Hopefully, when mainline returns next month, it'll stay for good.

Picture time!

1) Boarding in New Orleans. Train #1 (Sunset Limited) on the left. Train #58 (City of New Orleans) on the right.
2) Train 58, on the left, departs daily for Chicago @ 1:45pm.
3) Corridor of my Superliner Sleeping Car.
4) Amtrak's coach yards as we pull out of NOL.
5) Amtrak's NOL engine shop.
6) This neighborhood got about five feet of water after Katrina and is still basically abandoned.
7) Fifteen minutes after leaving the station, we start our climb over the 4.4 mile Huey P. Long bridge, which spans the Mississippi River.
8) The bridge was built in the 1930's and still sees dozens of trains per day.
9) Approaching the superstructure crossing the river.
10) A levee that didn't fail.
11) It's always interesting crossing the bridge by car when a train passes.
12) Dreary shot of N.O skyline as we descend into Bayou country.
13) Bayou country.
14) Crossing the Atchafalaya River in Morgan City, LA.
15) A few boats.
16) Rainy day in New Iberia, LA.
17) One of the many water crossings on the Sunset's route in Louisiana.
18) Oil rig waiting to be used.
19) Lafayette, LA station stop.
20) About twenty people boarded here, all in Coach.
21) Totally refurbished Sightseer Lounge Car.
22) New booth seating on the upper level...very nice!
23) Soggy fields of Southwest Louisiana.
24) Relaxing in my Superliner Roomette.
25) A pretty large Rice mill in between Lafayette and Lake Charles.
26) more Rice mill...
27) Sunset on the Sunset.
28) Dining Car before the crowd arrived.
29) After a fairly restful sleep, I woke up to this scene, in between San Antonio and Del Rio, TX.
30) Approaching Del Rio.
31) A small park in downtown Del Rio.
32) At the Del Rio station.
33) Gotta love those Superliner cars.
34) My home for 48 hours.
35) That's Mexico on the other side of the Rio Grande river.
36) The beautiful Lake Amistad.
37) No, we didn't stop at this small town.
38) Getting ready to cross the Pecos River High Bridge.
39) The bridge is 280 feet high...about twice as high as the Huey P. Long bridge.
40) One more...beautiful, eh?
41) Eagle's Nest canyon, near Langtry, TX.
42) Beautiful landscape...to some people, pretty boring I would imagine.
43) View from the last car on the train.
44) Lots of interesting views along the Sunset route.
45) Getting ready to cross that old bridge.
46) That's Highway 90, which follows our route (for the most part) from New Orleans to El Paso.
47) Alpine, TX.
48) Alpine's neat little station.
49) Mountain.
50) Those packages won't get there on time.
51) The top bunk can be a tight fit some some people.
52) In between Alpine and El Paso.
53) Sunset #2.
54) The beautiful El Paso train station.
55) Unloading baggage from the well-used Baggage Car.
56) Maybe two dozen people boarded here.
57) I woke up as we pulled into Palm Springs, CA. Here's a view of Palm Springs from the Dining Car window.
58) More Palm Springs...
59) One of the two dozen or so UP frieghts that passed us along the route.
60) Orange groves in between Palm Springs and Ontario.
61) The huge Colton Yards near Ontario.
62) Ontario airport.
63) Pomona, CA.
64) Skyline of L.A
65) Head end of our train as we approach Union Station.
66) And the tail end...
67) Stopped over the L.A River just a few hundred yards from the station.
68) We came to a stop just twenty minutes behind schedule. Here's what was pulling us.
69) The Coast Starlight departing for Seattle.
70) Every Sleeping Car room had one of these...also a postcard, timetable, and two bottles of water.
71) My only airplane picture of the trip...some classic international heavies at the TBIT.

Well that's all. I hope you guys got a real sense of what a long distance train trip is like. If you've never tried it before, give it a shot. You may like it.

First of all, great pics, looks like you had a great trip!
Secondly, thanks for making me homesick with the pics from SoCal
Finally, guess it's time to throw my "Silver Streak" DVD back into the viewer

Tom at MSY

"The criminal ineptitude makes you furious"-Bruce Springsteen, after seeing firsthand the damage from Hurricane Katrina

reminds me of a trip i took from Utica, NY to Penn Station, NY. my aunt and brother sat in front of me, i had two seats for myself. within the first 20 minutes, we smell something foul. really foul.... i tapped my brother and he said that it wasnt him. my aunt gave us some sweet smelling lotion to sniff our hands when it got worse. turns out, this guy in the middle of the car, was letting stink bombs loose from his body..... my second time on a train. i wish i took pictures.

I've always wanted to give Amtrak a try... unfortunately to travel between PHX and MSP on Amtrak requires a bus trip to Flagstaff, then a train to LAX, then another train up to PDX or SEA, and finally another train from PDX or SEA to MSP. Amtrak doesn't even serve Phoenix proper anymore but instead a small town about a half an hour away. But since I don't have a car and that town is not served by public buses, a Greyhound to Flagstaff is all that works. I might take them from MSP-Chicago sometime though!

Quoting N353SK (Reply 12):I have to ask, do you find the Huey P. more terrifying in a car or on a train?

I'd say a car since the lanes are VERY narrow. It's always an experience when you have an 18 wheeler flying past you on that bridge. Although the train is unique because there are no visible railings...you just see the land/water below.

Good lord, this is amazing! Over the last year, I would guess it averaged around 7-10 hours late into LA.

I took the Texas Eagle from Dallas to Los Angeles two years ago and we were 6 hours late into LA. On the trip home, the train was so delayed due to UP's horrific mismanagement that the train was cancelled in El Paso and I was bused to Dallas. It was horrible. I'm so glad to hear that UP isn't sidelining Amtrak trains for hours on end. Did you ask any of the Amtrak staff about the recent solid timekeeping?

This makes me eager to hit the rails again. I love train travel, but the way UP mismanages the route makes me wary to spend money booking a ticket. Luckily, other companies like BNSF do an admirable job of keeping the Amtrak trains running. The Southwest Chief from LA to Chicago is rarely late, averaging 65 mph the whole way.

Being more of a trainspotter than a planespotter, I really enjoyed this TR - it was interesting to read about something I've always wanted to try, long-distance rail travel in the US... hopefully one day.

Quoting JonnyGT (Reply 15):Did you ask any of the Amtrak staff about the recent solid timekeeping?

Apparently Amtrak's new CEO wrote a letter to both CSX and Union Pacific stating the obvious: passenger trains should get priority over freight trains, and that if the excessive delays continue, legal action may be pursured.

Now that may or may not be the reason why the trains have been close to on time lately, but I have to say we were only pulled to the side four times the entire route to wait for a freight to pass. We were one hour late at El Paso but we made up the time overnight.

Quoting N353SK (Reply 12):I have to ask, do you find the Huey P. more terrifying in a car or on a train?

I've never done the Huey P on a train, but driving a car in those 8-foot wide lanes, with no shoulders can be exciting at times. Especially considering a slight jog at the at east-bank side top span (when they were building the bridge, they built from both sides, attempting to meet at exactly the proper point over the river. Only thing is, they were off by almost two feet at the junction, so now there's a two-foot jog there on an already tight bridge).

The Huey P is a mess during any rush hour, but any accident in the area, you might as well detour 10-15 miles in either direction to either the Crescent City Connection or the Hale Boggs Bridge.

Tom at MSY

"The criminal ineptitude makes you furious"-Bruce Springsteen, after seeing firsthand the damage from Hurricane Katrina

I remember going on this train all the way from Orlando to LAX about 3 years ago, IIRC.

When I arrived into NOLA, I got off the train and went into a "Subway" store for a sandwich, plus I took some pics of the NOLA skyline too.

We attatched a heritage saloon car (privately owned) on the rear of the train before we headed on to LAX.

It was a great trip. The best part was the stop at El Paso, it was so HOT, being the middle of the day.

I am hoping to travel around the states by train next year. So far Ive done the sunset Limited, Southwest Chief, Acela and also the Capitol Limited.

I am planning on arriving into New York by Air, then taking the Acela to Washington, The Capitol to Chicago, The City of New Orleans to NOLA, then The Sunset Limited to LAX, the Coast Starlight to Seattle, the Empire builder back to Chicago, then fly home from there

that is a very nice trip report. thanks for sharing it. I rode the Sunset Limited twice. The first time was the day after thanksgiving from SAT-LAX. Second time was actually the Texas Eagle from CHI-SAT-LAX. They usually attach the Texas through cars at the end of the Sunset limited in San Antonio.

for the last couple weeks or so, Ive spotted the long distance trains ( i.e. Trains 1, 3, 11, 21/421 arrive in LAX pretty much on time ). i guess UP is finally showing some courtesy on the road.